Written in ink

Picture this: you have a huge passion for something. Maybe your work; maybe a hobby. You decide that, when you die, you’d like your remains to be incorporated somehow into the physical objects associated with the thing you’re passionate about.

Sounds kooky?

Well, this is what comic-book creator Mark Gruenwald did.

In 1978, Gruenwald was hired as an assistant editor by Marvel Comics, where he worked for the rest of his career.

Eventually, Gruenwald was promoted to full editorship, which placed him at the helm of The Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spider Woman, and What If.

This creative genius had some equally creative plans for how he wanted to be remembered when he was gone. He requested that his ashes be mixed in with the print run of a comic book.

Gruenwald’s wife fulfilled his final wishes by pouring his ashes into the ink of Mark’s most memorable series, Squadron Supreme.

Kooky or not, humans have always sought ways to hold the memories of their loved ones or themselves in time.

In fact, there are some who think this is the very purpose of art — to keep people’s dreams and values and experiences alive in the memory of others for eternity. As Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 18:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

To remain infinitely in the memory of the people we leave behind is the driving impetus of legacy, isn’t it?

A legacy says, “I was here, I lived. Now, carry on what I started.”

Legacy is a blueprint for how we see ourselves, what we value, what we did whilst living.

I wonder how many of you reading this live so as to create a legacy?

If you could have your ashes incorporated into any object, what would it be?